Interior Design and Feng Shui

My feng shui friend Janet was born in 1952, the year of the Water Dragon. This year 2012 is also a Water Dragon year, which occurs every 60 yeas. To commemorate the event, Janet purchased a bamboo plant in a Dragon container. She sent me an email from Austin with the above photo, asking if it’s auspicious to place this bamboo in her entrance. I told her it can be fortunate, and best if the Dragon faces the door.

Items not related by design.

The bamboo plant is healthy, but the container is not very attractive. This ceramic Dragon looks like a goofy cartoon character, not the powerful and regal Chinese Dragon. And see how the entry is just not inviting? That’s because the items in the entry don’t blend well together. The Dragon container is too decorative and heavy for the glass table, and the table should be outdoors. The silk flowers in the orange basket are not well arranged. It’s best to just remove the basket. The antique chair looks uncomfortable to sit in, and is missing a few pieces. Of course, Janet never uses the phone book propped up in the corner.

Janet understood how her disparate items are not unified in theme or design. She saw the new direction she could take, and started making changes. I also recommended that Janet add a window treatment to add warmth. A fabric curtain in a light gold or vanilla shade would work with the floor. The curtain should come to the floor, not stop at the window, for better luck and a sense of abundance.

Last week I heard that Truman Capote’s first novel Summer Crossing was being made into a movie, so I read it. In one scene, the heroine of Summer Crossing, an earlier incarnation of Holly Golightly from Breakfast At Tiffany’s, visits the family home of her unsuitable suitor:

“Mrs. Manzers’ furniture had this look of anonymous adequacy: chairs enough, plenty of lamps, a few too many objects. It was, however, only the objects that reflected a theme: two Buddhas, splitting their sides, supported a library of three volumes; an Indian maiden, made of pink wax, carried on a dreamy smiling ceaseless flirtation with Mickey Mouse, whose doll-sized self grinned atop the radio; and, like comic angels, a bevy of cloth clowns gazed down from the tall heights of a shelf.” More interior design with disparate items that make little sense together.

This summer, take a new look at the items that you’ve placed in your surroundings. You probably don’t have a pink wax Indian maiden, but what exactly do you have? And why? Spend some time looking, move things around, edit down if too many small things, and reduce clutter so your material items better blend to create a peaceful flow of energy. We can all learn from Janet’s entry. Good luck!